in any textbook overview of Hinduism you'll quickly encounter the caste system and the caste

system is this notion that people are born into the roles that they have to play in society now the
reason why I put this in quotes is because they are associated with this notion from the various
Hindu scripture of varnas but the best translation from Sanskrit into English of varnas is classes
it's interesting to think about whether they were first intended to be just social classes or also
hereditary classes as the caste system implies what we do know is that as we approach modern
Hinduism over the last several hundred years it did approach something that was more what you
are born into but we'll look at a little bit at the scripture and I'll leave it up to you to decide
whether it was more of a social class or it was a class that you are born into now the four varnas
that are described in the Vedas and in other Hindu scripture at the top you have the Brahmins
who are the priests and the teachers not to be confused with the god Brahma or the ultimate
reality Brahman next you have the concetta's who are the warriors and rulers it's interesting that
at least in Hindu society the Brahmins were considered higher than the Warriors the rulers the
Kings after that you have the vices were the farmers the merchants and then next the should
rizzoli Burres those who worked in service to the other three classes now you also had and have
people who outside of these four different classes today they refer to themselves as ballets which
means the oppressed but sometimes they've been referred to as untouchable and that's because in
traditional Hindu society many of these people weren't even able to enter temples they were
discriminated against they weren't had they didn't have access to resources they weren't even
allowed to shake hands or make physical contact with other members of Hindu society and we'll
talk a little bit more about how this may or may not be changing now to see the Bay of the Varna
system in Scripture I will start with this quote from the Rig Veda that is from the purusha sukta
and Purusha in the Vedas you can view as this cosmic being but they anthropomorphize this
being making it seem or making it an analogy with a human body when they divided the cosmic
being how many portions did they make what do they call his mouth his arms what do they call
his thighs and feet the Brahmin was his mouth of both arms was the rajanya made their jhana you
could view as the Shepherd as the Warriors and the Kings his thighs became the VISAA from his
feet the sudra was produced so in the Vedas and there's some dispute about whether this was
originally in the Vedas or about whether it was added later to have a creation story but it is
making reference to these four varnas but here it is not hundred percent clear whether it's just
talking about the various classes of society they're bound to have some priests and teachers some
Wars and rulers from farmers Merchants some laborers or are they saying something more
fundamental now we can go to the time of the Mahabharata when the Maha Barth was written
and the subset of the mob bars which is the bhagavad-gita and they also make reference to this
Varna system so the bhagavad-gita is the part of the Mahabharata where you have Krishna
talking to Arjun and reassuring him about his role in life and this is what Krishna tells Arjuna a
Brahmins virtues born of his nature are serenity self-control austerity purity tolerance honesty
learning and to know the truth of things which be Akash uh today is pride born of his nature lives
in valor exuberance determination resourcefulness bravery in battle and generosity and Noble
demeanor as a Lord of men of Aisha's task born with his nature is to till the ground tend cattle
venture trade a sugar estate suiting his nature is service arguably in service to the other three
classes now once again it doesn't make strict reference to you are born a Brahmin if your father
was a Brahmin then you have to be a Brahmin or if your father was a Kshatriya you will be a
cajeta it is making reference to this idea of being born of his nature so you could interpret that is
this is this idea that you have some innate gifts you have some innate tendencies and those innate
tendencies are going to dictate whether you're going to be a Brahmin Kshatriya of Asia or sudra I
encourage you as always to look up the primary documents yourself and especially when you're
looking at something that is a translation this is a translation from Sun script to English how it is
translated matters so try to look up multiple translations and come to your own conclusion now
regardless of whether the ancient Hindu scripture the bhagavad-gita is over 2,000 years old for
talking about the Vedas and especially if that especially if the parotia shook that was part of the
original Vedas we're talking about something that's over 3,000 years old regardless of the
original intent of the Varna system whether it was supposed to be just talking about classes as
opposed to a hereditary caste the reality is is over the last several hundred years in India it did
become a caste people whose parents were Brahmins became Brahmins people whose parents
were kosher areas became a chef ideas and they married amongst themselves and it did dictate
their social status and so to put all of this in perspective I'm going to give you a quote from really
one of India's founding fathers so this is a picture of BR Ambedkar and he was born adalat and
faced significant discrimination when he was growing up he wasn't allowed to sit on chairs or eat
next to his fellow students as you can imagine his family wouldn't have had access to nowhere
near the resources that other people in a village or in a city would have had access to they've
been actively discriminated with they wouldn't been able to even make physical contact with
members of the formal Varna system but despite all of that discrimination he was able to get a
significant and eventually become India's first law minister and not only that but the principal
architect of the Indian Constitution and this is what he wrote about the caste system caste is not a
physical object like a wall of bricks or a line of barbed wire which prevents the Hindus from
commingling and which has therefore to be pulled down caste is a notion it is a state of the mind
and if you look at modern India or if you talk to modern Hindus many of them will say hey we
don't take caste seriously we view this as a part of our past and a part of our past that were not
necessarily that proud of but there are still Hindus who do take the caste system seriously
especially if you go into rural areas in villages many of the things that BR Ambedkar faced this
level of discrimination of dollops not being able to go to a temple not having access to water
resources this is still happening in India and in things like intermarriage the caste system is still
taken reasonably seriously by a large portion of the Hindu population now here's another quote
from BR Ambedkar some men say that they should be satisfied with the abolition of
untouchability only leaving the caste system alone the aim of abolition of untouchability alone
without trying to abolish the inequalities inherent in the caste system is a rather low aim